Peace or invasion debate as Gaza deaths near 110

Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip November 18.An Israeli F-15 Eagle fighter jet takes off from a Israeli Air Force Base on a mission over the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
Photo: ReutersPhoto: AFP

Israeli strikes have killed 32 Palestinians on Monday, taking the Gaza death toll to 109 as United Nations’ general secretary Ban Ki-moon joined efforts to broker a truce to end the worst violence in four years.

As the violence raged for a sixth day, an Israeli missile killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant in a Gaza City tower housing Palestinian and international media, the second time in as many days the building has been targeted.

As Mr Ban arrived in Cairo to push for a ceasefire, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said his movement was committed to efforts to secure a truce with Israel, but insisted the Jewish state must lift its six-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The United States will not allow a UN Security Council statement on the Gaza conflict that undermines efforts to reach a ceasefire, US ambassador Susan Rice says.

But after new talks between the 15-nation council, Russia announced that unless a statement calling for hostilities to end was agreed by Tuesday morning it would press for a full resolution – a move which the United States could veto.

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The Israeli army said that 42 rockets had struck Israel and another 19 had been intercepted by its Iron Dome defence system. To date, the military has struck more than 1350 targets in Gaza, and 640 rockets have hit southern Israel while another 324 have been intercepted.

The violence, which comes as Israel gears up for a general election on January 22, raised the spectre of a broader Israeli military campaign like its 22-day Operation Cast Lead, launched at the end of December 2008.

Ministers in Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
’s inner circle – the Forum of Nine – were reportedly in talks over whether to agree to a ceasefire or expand the air campaign into a wider ground operation.

All the signs point to preparations for a ground operation, with the army sealing all roads around Gaza and some 40,000 reservists reportedly massed along the border, awaiting orders from the political echelon.

CASUALTIES CLIMB

The Hamas Health Ministry said Monday evening that a total of 102 people had been killed since Wednesday morning, when Israeli airstrikes began, following months of Palestinian rocket fire into Israel. Reports indicate another seven have been killed since then. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said she believed a majority of these were militants, though it is difficult to know because Hamas’s own fighting brigade and the other factional groups are secretive.

The Hamas ministry said the dead included 24 children, 10 women and 12 men aged over 50, who were presumably not involved in combat. Of the remaining, at least 36 are known militants. Hamas said 850 have been wounded, 260 of them children, 140 of them women and 55 men aged over 50.

Three people have been killed so far in Israel, all civilians, in a rocket strike that hit an apartment house in the southern Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday morning. The Israelis have said at least 79 Israelis have been wounded and that Gaza rockets have reached as far north as Tel Aviv.

The latest Gaza casualties reported killed since midnight local time included Palestinians killed in strikes by warplanes and a drone attack on two men on a motorcycle, the Health Ministry said. Another Israeli drone attack killed the driver of a taxi hired by journalists and displaying Press signs, although it was not clear which journalists hired it, Palestinian officials said.

BAN URGES ISRAELI RESTRAINT

Mr Ban has already spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge restraint, while also strongly condemning the rocket attacks from Gaza that Israel blames for its air strikes and its military buildup around the besieged Palestinian territory.

“Ban went to the region during the last Israeli offensive against Gaza in 2009 and worked hard to end that conflict. He is looking to produce a truce and ceasefire this time as well," said one senior UN diplomat before the secretary-general’s visit.

The secretary-general will then travel to Jerusalem later on Tuesday or on Wednesday, according to UN diplomats.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said Mr Ban would also go to the Palestinian territories.

ISRAELI CABINET DEBATES EGYPT PROPOSAL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in talks with top ministers in discussions on how to proceed with the ongoing Gaza operation.

Ministers in Mr Netanyahu’s inner circle – the Forum of Nine – are reportedly in talks over whether to agree to a ceasefire or expand the air and naval campaign into a ground operation.

Israeli public radio says the meeting will touch on an Egyptian ceasefire proposal that emerged following a full day of indirect negotiations in Cairo on Sunday between Israeli officials and Palestinian representatives.

The report says Israel wants to see a 24-to-48 hour truce take effect that could then be used to negotiate the finer details of a full ceasefire agreement.

The radio also stressed that most army attacks on Gaza had halted some two to three hours before the start of the cabinet meeting.

Dan Harel, former deputy chief of the Israeli military, said there was a maximum of 48 hours for Egyptian-led truce efforts to bear fruit or the troops would have to go in.

“There are two basic alternatives," he told journalists in a Monday evening conference call.

“One is an agreement, cooked in Cairo, and the other is escalating the situation and moving forward into the Gaza Strip with a land effort, which is going to be bad for both sides," he said in English. “We are about 24 to 48 hours from this junction."

The latest negotiations aimed at ending the conflict, conducted behind closed doors in Cairo, ended without agreement. But all sides have expressed a willingness to engage in more talks.

OIL PRICE SURGES AS CONFLICT RAGES

Oil prices have spiked as the violence has intensified, sparking fresh concern about supplies from the crude-rich Middle East, and after a pre-weekend blast on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

The market also rallied on rising prospects that top oil consumer, the US can avoid a return to recession by pulling back from a “fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect on January 1.

In late afternoon deals in London on Monday, Brent North Sea crude for January delivery hit a one-month high at $US111.90 per barrel – a level last seen on October 22. It later stood at $US111.77, up $US2.28 from Friday’s closing level.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, or West Texas Intermediate soared $US2.52 to $US89.44 a barrel.

“The ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, which has stoked fears about supply of oil across the Middle East region, continues to provide the main source of support to prices," added GFT Markets analyst Fawad Razaqzada.